How’s everyone feeling? Personally, my mixed emotions are having mixed emotions. The Dawgs have not lacked for drama dating back to the end of last season. We were far from perfect on Saturday, but we just beat what appears to be a damn good football team, who gave us their best shot, on the road in an insane environment. I won’t speak for UT fans and players, but I’d bet many of them would have said beating Georgia was their biggest goal for 2025…and they definitely played like it coming out of the gate. Let’s get to some grades…     

Quarterback: A

• Was Gunner absolutely perfect? No. Did he miss a few opportunities? I’m sure he did. Could he have stepped up in the pocket a little better? Sure. Am I grading on a slight curve? Damn right. This was Gunner’s first true road start and that’s about as tough of an environment you’ll ever see in college football. To make matters worse, Tennessee opened with 3 straight touchdown drives, putting that much more pressure on Gunner to deliver. 23/31 for 304 and 2 TD’s, 13 for 38 and 1 TD…made throws at all levels, some had to be fired and some had to be finessed. Great stat day for anyone against this level of opponent…but it’s bigger than that. Gunner was clutch as hell when he absolutely had to be…4^th and 6…don’t need to say any more. Gunner was getting pressured and harassed all day and figured out a way to complete some crucial drive extending passes just before getting put on his ass in a very unceremonious fashion…I’m pretty sure Paul Blake got hit less against Texas State. It’s hard to put a value on toughness, but I’d say Stockton’s toughness meter goes up to 11. If he didn’t earn everyone’s respect on Saturday, I’m not sure what it takes. That dude is QB1 and played like it.        

Running Back: B

• Thought Nate Frazier had a very strong day, ran tough and nearly pulled the walk off TD in OT. I watched the Brooks Austin breakdown and he made some good points about Nate maybe leaving some yards on the field, but I can’t recall him taking a single loss and he seemed to run with a little more juice this week…more to come. McCray obviously got some important short yardage TD’s, which is nice to get what we were shopping for in the portal. Even though Dwight Lightning got stopped for minimal gains on at least 2 carries, he still put together 5 carries for 29 yards…I’m praying he gets an opportunity on a well blocked screen pass just to see him hit top speed. Chauncey had a couple of nice runs, performance was probably a little better than the 2.7 YPC average he earned on the day. RB’s caught 3 passes out of the backfield for about 20 yards, so solid work there as well. Overall, RB’s ran for about 4 YPC on the day with occasionally good blocking…feels like a solid B performance for this group.

Offensive Line – C-

• It’s a small miracle we were able to get 38 points in regulation after watching our OL play on Saturday. The left side of our OL seems pretty set…not perfect play, but mostly solid from what I could see other than Freeling getting beat for the strip sack. Bobo played pretty well from what I could tell. On to the right side…how much time do you have? At Right Guard, Glover is a true freshman that made some plays, but also made some mistakes…won’t judge him too hard based on the situation he’s in. Gaston played some, but guessing the injury was bothering him enough to limit his snap count. Right Tackle…Jesus, what a day. I’m not sure what we’re going to do at Right Tackle moving forward, but I feel very comfortable saying Uini is not the solution. He may end up a great OL one day, but that day at that position is not today. What about Greene? Well, he was put on the earth through force on multiple occasions. I’m guessing he’s still not close to 100% and if that’s the case, let’s shut him down until he is. What about Bo Hughley? All I’ve seen him do is play very well when he gets in the game. Am I missing something here? He shouldn’t be a surprise revelation. He was a top 100 recruit and tenth best OT for the 2023 class. He’s in his third year in the program, he should be ready. Whatever…I’m ranting now. Let’s sum it up…run blocking was so-so, pass blocking was no-no, and the right side of our line was less effective than a pogo stick in quicksand. At least there were no false start penalties…so that’s a good thing. For Bama game, I’d like to see this starting lineup (Freeling, Morris, Bobo, Gaston (if healthy), Hughley).

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – A-

• Loved this group on Saturday. Branch did Branch things…his TD was a thing of beauty with blocks set up perfectly and him out accelerating the one man he had to beat…and he ran a great route on the 2 point conversion. Young had his best game, setting the tone on the very first play with a deep ball, and a really nice catch and run on a screen pass…dude looked large and fast. Humphreys…do I even need to say it? Dillon Bell made a little more noise this Saturday with a handful of catches, including an important 3^rd down conversion where he had to make a man miss. Sacovie with a very nice catch and run on the day…he’s got some quickness to him. Luckie caught a few balls and wins the “receiver who blocked his ass off” award. Delp chipped in with an 18 yard reception punctuated with a jumping front kick to the defender’s face. Only major gripe with this group was the Young personal foul that had a direct effect on that possession ending with a punt…can’t do that kind of stuff in big games on the road.     

Defensive Line – B

• Giving up 38 points in regulation doesn’t feel like a B performance, but these guys were pretty solid. They kept Tennessee to below 4 YPC, accounted for some TFL’s on the day and broke into the backfield on a few occasions. As fast as Tennessee plays, it’s got to be tough on defensive linemen to maintain on longer drives. Still feel like this group can be a strength of the team throughout the season…will need them to show up in two weeks against Bama.   

Linebackers – B         

• The ILB’s had a big day on the stat sheet. I think CJ Allen looks noticeably faster to me this year compared to last year. Chris Cole is definitely legit and all the offseason noise was well founded. Raylen Wilson’s hit on Aguilar made me pee a little bit. Quintavious Johnson made a few plays at OLB, which was nice to see. Low marks for edge setting on Tennessee’s final drive in regulation…multiple runs broke outside for good gains. Couple of good PBU’s from Allen and Cole, but the group also got beat over the middle on a couple of throws. Could be the toughest offense we play all year, so pretty solid day all things considered.     

Defensive Backs – C

• Some may want to go more harsh than this. If the game ended after the first quarter, it definitely would have been worse…but hear me out. I think Ellis Robinson is going to end up being a great player at UGA and I’ll admit, I’ve been championing the cause of him getting more playing time. That said, Ellis Robinson had a day I’m sure he would prefer to forget…2 PI’s, one that still went for a TD and one that extended a UT drive that ended with a TD. Jacorey Thomas got caught looking on a long Tennessee TD. Daniel Harris didn’t have his best outing either, but I’m going to defend him a little bit on the long TD he gave up…he was in perfect position, he was playing the ball and there was definitely a push off. I know the commentating crew said the contact wasn’t significant enough to affect the play, but I disagree. When you’re running that fast and someone pushes you a little bit while you’re elevating, it throws off your balance a lot…just one man’s opinion. Kyron Jones quietly had 10 tackles. KJ Bolden chipped in with another 7 tackles and was “Johnny On The Spot” for the interception when the UT receiver fell down. Daylen Everette wasn’t mentioned a lot, which is a good thing…can only recall one catch made against him and it was very contested. Brightest spot for this group was Aguero who played his best game at UGA. Multiple hard hits, one that resulted in a PBU and another that resulted in a 3^rd down stop…also grabbed a pick to end a UT drive in the 2^nd quarter. Let’s hope this is the Aguero we get the rest of the year…dude looked good.          

Special Teams – A

• Peyton Woodring continues to be automatic, no misses on XP’s or FG’s…long of 48 on the afternoon. Thorpedo was his usual brilliant self with some unreturnable bombs that averaged nearly 48 on the afternoon. No blunders or big plays given up. We needed every available point from Woodring and he delivered as usual.        

Coaching – B

• This is tough because there was a lot of good and definitely some bad. The good…the offense looked world’s better than last week when we played a really bad team. Let’s give Bobo his due…drew up some great design, schemed some dudes open and the offense looked far more creative than the first two weeks. They must have done a great job prepping the offense to handle the noise because zero false starts. Defensive adjustments were made after the nightmare first quarter. Loved the timeout Kirby took to keep Tennessee from lining up to potentially go for it on 4^th down, and they ended up punting when play resumed. Really ballsy call to go for it on 4^th down in the first half on our side of the field and convert. Took the points to end the first half which I thought was the right thing to do. The opening drive in the 3^rd quarter was a thing of beauty and I think it elevated Kirby’s sperm count. The bad…why in the world did it take so long to put Hughley in the game at RT? Safe to say our goal to go offense could use some work…are we just never going to throw to Thomas or Young inside the 5 yard line? Too many men on the field trying to substitute and got flagged. My biggest gripe…we had a boatload of momentum in the 3^rd quarter and had a chance to absolutely step on UT’s throat…we get all of 3 points in 2 drives…one of which was a short field. We went WAY conservative when at least one touchdown (or hell, 2 FG’s) would have made it a two score game. That was a huge missed opportunity and in the blink of an eye, Tennessee hits a huge explosive to retake the lead in a game we were completely controlling at that point. I hope the lesson was learned…when you have a chance to give them a kill shot, take the damn thing.       

Quarterback Analysts – F

• I’m not saying this to beat up on QB’s not playing well, but all of the supposed QB experts are not looking too bright right now. DJ Lagway was anointed as someone with the “highest ceiling” by many in the media…5 INT’s against LSU. Arch Manning, who was practically given the Heisman in July, has not played up to the preseason hype. Side note…does anyone think Quinn Ewers is quietly a little bit happy right now after everyone in Texas wanted to throw him out so Manning could play? Klubnik has started 1-2 and looked pretty pedestrian while doing it. Nussmeier has looked pretty darn average to start the year. Yeah…I’m fine with Gunner.   

Still not perfect…but that was a hell of a win and super entertaining. I’m confident there will not be a tougher environment we’ll play in all year, and Tennessee might end up being a playoff caliber team. Kudos to the Dawgs for the fight and resiliency they demonstrated all day…huge road win to extend the streak to 9 in a row over the Vols! Off week to settle the nerves before we get a shot to make some things right with Bama. Go Dawgs!